All That Matters
by Luaithreach
Summary: A One-Shot, in which Fili and Kili (barely) survive BoFA and that's All That Matters. Not sure what happened the first time I published it, but it's been fixed!


**Hello. I don't know what happened the first time I tried to post this, I just know something odd happened. Thanks a mil to Marigold Faucet, who alerted me to the fact that this wasn't working properly.**

**I hope you enjoy this and, is you don't mind, please review.**

**Luaithreach xxx**

* * *

The battle was won.

* * *

Thunder roared. The heavens opened and the rain fell down over a battlefield at the foot of the mountain. The wind was cold, the rain was cold and the sky was grey. Not light, not dark, just grey.

The battlefield was littered with the dead bodies of orcs and goblins and wargs. And men and elves and dwarves. There were too many corpses. Far too many. Far too many beings had given their lives in the battle for a mountain. A mountain filled with halls of gold and silver and precious gems. A mountain that had been dragon infested. A mountain that so many had died for. Too many.

What did the gold matter to the dead? What did the silver matter to the dead? What did the gems matter to the dead? Were they all that mattered to those who still lived?

* * *

At the foot of the mountain, he lay. On his back, staring up at the sky, he could see nothing but the grey sky and the heavy drops of water that fell in to his eyes and on to his face. His body was in agony. It burned inside the armour. It stung from battle. It was ready to die, but was he? He wasn't sure.

'Brother, Brother, Brother' the word floated around his head until it had practically lost all meaning. 'Brother, Bro-Fee' that was what brother meant, he remember.

"F-Fee... Fee? Wh-where are... You?" A shaky voice called out. His own.

"I'm here, behind you, Kee," came a quiet, but reassuring, reply.

The young, dark haired dwarf tried to roll over to see if he could find his brother but very quickly gave up. The pain shot through him even if he barely breathed now.

"Don't move, Kee,"

"F... Fee? I think I l-lied to m-mother,"

"Wouldn't be the first time you did that, would it?"

"But this... Is different, Fee..."

"It is, because you didn't lie,"

"But... I think-"

"No, Kee,"

There was no reply. The archer had lost both too much blood and consciousness.

The blond dwarf pushed himself up and started retching. Had the last thing he had eaten been more recently than the three days it had been, he would've thrown up. He continued retching for another two minutes or so and then turned to his unconscious brother.

Kili lay in a big pool of red blood. His blood. He had a black knife sticking out of his chest. It came out of this back. Not good. His arm lay, twisted and broken underneath him. There was an orc's arrow sticking out of his leg again. Again! His bow, which he usually had slung over his right shoulder, lay splintered, a useless piece of broken wood beneath him.

Fili himself looked a bit better. He had a big bruise, black and purple, on the top of his head. It was from an eagle with bad aim dropping a very heavy stone on him. He had fallen unconscious within the first few hours of the battle. He hasn't acquired any injuries other than that other than maybe a couple of broken ribs from orcs trampling what they thought was a corpse.

Fili frowned. Kili's blood was pouring out rapidly. His blood, the only thing that kept him in this world, the world of the living, was leaving his body. He was going to die.

Fili stood up. A wave of nausea hit him. He waited for it to pass and the looked around. There wasn't a single living soul within his sights. He looked back down at his brother. He was bleeding out. He was bleeding out fast. Too fast. He had to get help.

He bent down to pick up his little brother when he found he was no longer there. He was in the arms of a redheaded elf. It was the Kili had taken a liking to. Sauriel? Thauriel? Tauriel? Tauriel. That was her name. She wasn't that bad looking. But she was an elf.

"What are you going to do with him?" Fili demanded.

"I'm going to save him. Since I don't see you doing anything of the sort," she said, turning around. She started to walk quickly, heading away from the mountain.

She carried Kili, followed by Fili to a healing tent. And _elvish _healing tent. With _elves_ inside it. She entered the tent. Fili chased her. He scanned the tent. He saw at least fifteen beds, three of which were empty. All the occupied beds were occupied by _elves_.

Tauriel carried the young dwarf over to the closest empty bed. She lay him down very gently. First she carefully held his mouth open and poured a cloudy blue tonic in it. She drew out the sword. Then she started stripping him of his armour. She took off his breastplate and then she pulled his mail over his head. She cut open his blue tunic next, leaving his bloody, bare chest exposed. She treated the wound in his chest for infection and then bound in. Then she looked at the arrow. That she pulled out easily. Treated for infection and bound. Lastly, she turned her attention to his arm. It was clearly broken, it had broken through the skin. She pushed the bone back in to place and bound that too.

Then she turned to Fili. "He will live," she said. She led Fili over to a bed. She applied an ointment to his head and check his ribs. "Your ribs are broken. If you stay in bed though, you should be ok,"

After that, she left Fili and went back to Kili. She sat down beside his bed and held his hand in hers. Was it possible Kili's feelings towards the elf weren't a one way thing?

* * *

He woke up to see red hair. Fiery red hair. And brown eyes. He smiled. It was Tauriel. And she had his hand in hers! "Tauriel?" He asked.

She leaned in towards him. "Right here," she whispered.

"Where's Fee? And Uncle?" He asked.

"Fili's over there," she said, pointing at his bed. "And your uncle is alive. He's somewhere in side the mountain"

Kili smiled. He looked up at here. Her cheek was almost touching his.

"Well," he said. "I'm alive, Fee's alive and Uncle's alive. An you're alive. I guess that's all that matters"


End file.
